YOUNG PEOPLE IN LIBRARIES : NSW STATE WIDE WORKING GROUP

Thursday 17 February 2011

McDonalds Room,State Library of NSW

Minutes: Jo Potter (Wyong) / Mylee Joseph (SLNSW)

THEME: Youth – collections and connections!

Attendance:

Nicole Powell (City of Sydney), Debra Cox (Hornsby), Luise Scherer (Camden), Tara Cordina (Bankstown), Ros Stewart (Maitland), Pat Nguyen (Liverpool), Sharon Smith (Wagga/RRL), Kim Tattam (Great Lakes), Peta Moss (Wollongong), Sonia Ward (Hawkesbury), Julie Swane (Newcastle), Michelle Cairns (Ku-ring-gai), Selina Spiteri (Leichhardt), Gabbi Wyllie (Ryde), Jo Potter (Wyong), Lee Castledine (Blacktown), Claire Stalker-Booth(Willoughby), Michael Vella (Blacktown), Alycia Bailey (Mosman), Annette Alexander (The Hills), Manjit Uppal (Fairfield), Kirsty Plumridge (Holroyd), Cathy Shay (Lake Macquarie), Melinda McNaughton (Sutherland), Rebeccah Vick (Pittwater), Kate Camion (Hurstville), Heike Ohrmann (Rockdale), Helena Lane (Port Stephens), Michael Jazbec (Shellharbour), David Green (Shellharbour), Cherie Goldsmith (Woollahra), Sam Sheppeard-Boros (Randwick), Justin Yeomans (Kogarah), Megan Tolnay (Warringah), Jenny Timms (Warringah), Karen Lin (Auburn), Jessica Green (Shoalhaven), Suzanne Micallef (Parramatta), Hiba Kanj (Parramatta), Mylee Joseph (State Library)

Welcome:

This was the first meeting of a new state-wide working group: YOUNG PEOPLE IN LIBRARIES. The state-wide group was established at the request of the PLM / PLC library managers. The term 'young people' ranges across a wide spread of ages [early childhood / children / tweens / teenagers / young adults] so this group will have a variety of areas to focus on.

What happens to the existing groups?

  • PLM have requested that the metropolitan groups amalgamate into the state-wide group – thankyou to CLAWS, SE CYA group and the Central CYA group for all of your work to date and we look forward to working together.
  • Country groups, where they have the support of their managers, can continue to operate as regional hubs of the state-wide group

How will a state-wide group work?

  • Library workers from across the NSW public library network are invited to participate in all of the working group meetings, it is acknowledged that it is difficult for regional / rural / remote libraries to attend and the group will investigate technology and other ways of making the group as inclusive as possible. ACTION: Mylee to investigate wiki and streaming / recording options.
  • The group members will all be able to communicate via theelist
    to join see
  • A small committee will develop the agendas and fill the roles of chair person and minute takers for 2011: Lee Castledine (Blacktown) - chairperson; Sharon Smith (RRL-Wagga); Gabbi Wyllie (Ryde); Melinda McNaughton (Sutherland); Mylee Joseph (SLNSW). Mylee will arrange a teleconference for the committee to plan the agendas etc for coming meetings. ACTION: Each of the committee members will send a message to the elist introducing themselves and their role at their library.
  • Everyone is welcome to make suggestions for topics / speakers etc. ACTION: Please forward your ideas to one of the committee members.
  • The group will report quarterly to the library managers via PLM and PLC; group members are encouraged to share the minutes of meetings with their managers and to discuss issues arising.
  • The group will theme meetings around areas of concern or age groups to ensure that the wide brief of ‘young people’ can be covered effectively. For example 2 x yr = early literacy / 1 x yr = primary aged / 2 x yr = youth. The themes may change according to the needs and wishes of the group, however there is strong support for separating out youth as a number of people work in youth specific roles.

Terms of reference / priorities for the working group:

The entire meeting used post-it notes to brainstorm the priorities for the group resulting in some common themes (the full list of input is attached):

What people want to get out of the Young People in Libraries Working Group:

YOUNG PEOPLE IN LIBRARIES : NSW STATE WIDE WORKING GROUP 17 February 2011 Page 1

  • Networking
  • Ideas for programming / engaging youth
  • Ideas for youth spaces
  • Discussion about effectively promoting services / working with council
  • Technology (incl. gaming, social media, etc.)
  • Staffing concerns / support (including ideas for training staff to work with young people)
  • Collection management

YOUNG PEOPLE IN LIBRARIES : NSW STATE WIDE WORKING GROUP 17 February 2011 Page 1

NB: these priorities will be confirmed at the next meeting where there is a focus on early literacy

Guest speaker:

Helen Ahern, NSW Youth Week Coordinator, Communities NSW

Ph: 02 9995 0533 | Fax: 02 9995 0428 |

  • Youth Week, 1 – 10 April 2011 theme = “Own it!”
  • National program – Helen is part of the national planning group [National launch is in Melbourne this year]
  • She also administers the state based funding program. Funding has been distributed to all 152 councils in NSW (they have to match it dollar for dollar). The funding is capped at $2,500 per council but many councils contribute more than matching amount.
  • Website there is a delay in the site going live as the Youth Week role for NSW has moved around through several govt departments.
  • To get your event onto the website – talk to the person at your council who is the contact.
  • Events have to be planned with local youth, giving them opportunities to create fun, express themselves, gain skills, learn something new, talk to people about issues that matter to them.
  • There will be a NSW launch event – to celebrate and acknowledge the young people who have organised events.
  • They are trialling a new idea - mobile wheelie bin sound systems (WBSS) for youth events
  • Helen provided a handout with 20 top ideas for running a youth week event in your area (copies will be emailed out on the elist).
  • Mylee offered to send messages out to the elist for Helen re: future information about Youth Week.
  • Activities some libraries are engaging in for Youth Week:
  • Sutherland: clothing swap, wii competition, movie nights
  • Mosman: photography competition in cooperation with Shore Rock
  • Wagga: manga workshops, henna workshops, circus skills workshops, dungeons & dragons workshops

ACTION: Find out who in your council is the Youth Week contact (probably someone in the community development area). Talk about ways the library can be involved.

Engaging with young people – feedback on the staff training program pilot

  • This training program was developed by Dr Phil Nunn on behalf of Youth Action and Policy Association (YAPA) the peak organisation representing young people & youth services in NSW
  • It builds on the work of Garner Clancey in Young People in Libraries: a self paced learning kit
  • The 6 sessions that were held in 2010 (State Library, Blacktown, Goulburn, Dubbo, Wagga, Tamworth) were pilots to test the training materials.
  • There was a general discussion about the course, what worked well, what would be better, what impacts people have noticed in their colleagues who attended.
  • Recommendations:
  • use a survey to get info about issues at the libraries before training – to better inform the trainers.
  • mixed groups (more than one library service) help give participants more perspective on their issues.
  • recommendation to the library managers that the group support the course and see an ongoing need for this type of training.
  • best to run it one or two times per year in term 2 or 3 (before HSC)

R U Game? – Games and public libraries (and librarians!)

  • After the Games and public libraries seminar last year there have been an on-going series of talks held in World of Warcraft about gaming in libraries. Everyone is welcome to participate and the transcripts of the talks are available on the website at
  • The next talk is 3 March 9.00am featuring Beth Gallaway, the Information Goddess and author of Game on!: gaming at the library, who will be speaking about her work with games and libraries.
  • There will be another live one day seminar this year on Games and public libraries (in the Metcalfe) please save the date: 13 July 2011
  • For more information please contact Ellen Forsyth 02) 9273 1525

Summer Reading Club and youth – the autopsy

Some libraries targeted youth in their summer reading club:

  • Bankstown: 250 club (every book read over 250 pages counts for a prize draw entry)
  • Wagga: Zombies Reading Club for teens, prize an electric guitar, 100 entries
  • Sutherland: teen competition, circulation slips annotated with whether they liked the book or not, weekly prize draws for JB hifi vouchers, approx 100 participants
  • Blacktown: teens decorated a ping pong ball eyeball as their entry in the prize draw bowl, lots of prizes for teen participants
  • Mosman: reading rave measured hours spent reading (including online reading) 60 participants with 20 completions
  • Kogarah: made own flyers with ‘cooler / age appropriate’ graphics – teens collected about 400 copies of the flyer and 40 returned reviews to enter the draw for an ipod touch. Lots said they wanted to enter but didn’t have time.

ACTION: As soon as information is available about the theme and the program for Summer Reading Club 2011-12 – Mylee will alert the network.

Collections - Manga Mania: Graphic novel collections
Mylee showed this table of the data from Public Library Statistics for loans of YA fiction from 2004 – 2010 and asked how much is likely to be due to manga collections?

  • Some libraries had stats for the turnover rate of their manga / graphic novel collections – averaging 10 loans per item per annum (more than double most other collections)
  • Lots of ‘in-house’ use that isn’t captured in the circulation statistics
  • Lots of YA fiction seems to be discovered because the graphic novel collection is nearby

Some of the challenges:

  • Some series are huge (eg up to 40 titles)
  • Missing items in a series need to be replaced
  • Budget constraints (helps to be able to argue the turnover rate of the collection!)

Suppliers people recommend:

YOUNG PEOPLE IN LIBRARIES : NSW STATE WIDE WORKING GROUP 17 February 2011 Page 1

  • Kinokuniya
  • Elan
  • Kings comics
  • Viking
  • Sealight

YOUNG PEOPLE IN LIBRARIES : NSW STATE WIDE WORKING GROUP 17 February 2011 Page 1

Tip for finding what’s hot – ask the teens in your library / community. Beware of mainstream authors jumping on the band wagon of graphic novels as they’re not always popular.

Manga collection development references:

Manga: the complete guide
by Jason Thompson
ISBN 13: 978-0345485908 (2007) / 500 essential graphic novels: the ultimate guide
by Gene Kannenberg, Jr.
ISBN 13: 9781905814299 (2008)
Anime for Libraries Glossary: What are they talking about?

No flying, no tights

Manga / Graphic novel collection development policies / profiles:

  • Where selection of graphic novels is outsourced, it is important to stay abreast of trends and to actively manage the outsourcing process to ensure the collection is relevant and appealing. Kiama Library provided their statement as an example:

Youth Graphic Novel Profile

Audience / 12 – 17 years (inclusive).
Content / Popular and in demand content. Avoid content that is high in:
  • Violence
  • Explicit Sexual references
  • Abuse (Physical and/or verbal)

Coverage / Titles that link to movies e.g.: X-men, Fantastic Four, Watchmen.
Recommended titles e.g.: Library Professionals and members of the public.
Exclusions / R-rated graphics.
  • It is important to have a clear statement about graphic novels in your collection development policy, in particular to have considered the possibility that a book may be challenged on the basis of :

YOUNG PEOPLE IN LIBRARIES : NSW STATE WIDE WORKING GROUP 17 February 2011 Page 1

  • age appropriateness
  • genre
  • explicit language
  • graphic violence
  • nudity
  • explicit sexual situations

YOUNG PEOPLE IN LIBRARIES : NSW STATE WIDE WORKING GROUP 17 February 2011 Page 1

A sample policy statement from Fairfield Libraries CDP was shared with the useful phrase “it is the responsibility of parents or guardians, rather than library staff, to make a final decision as to what is suitable reading for their child”. A full copy of the section on graphic novels will be circulated.

The group discussed:

  • where to place graphic novels that were fairly ‘adult’ in themes / illustrations
  • experiences dealing with challenges / reclassification
  • ratings / age guidelines
  • The Review of the National Classification Scheme (Attorney-General's website) in light of changes in technology, media convergence and the global availability of media content.

Note: there is a US based speciality elist GNLIB-L · Graphic Novels in Libraries

Discussion of graphic novels and comic literature, primarily of interest to public and school librarians. Membership is open to librarians, industry professionals, and authors/illustrators to share reviews and resources for graphic novelcollections.

Manga / anime events and screenings:

  • SMASH! Sydney Manga and Anime Show is a Japanese pop culture convention that is devoted to artists, creators and fans alike. Saturday, July 16, 2011 at Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre
  • Mad man to set up an anime club for screening
  • Animania Festival 2011 Sydney, March 19

Terms:

  • Cosplay = Short for "costume play," this aspect of anime culture often draws attention at cons and anime clubs. Basically, it is dressing up as one's favorite anime (or in some cases, video game or movie) character
  • Scanlation (also scanslation) = unauthorized scanning, translation, editing and distribution of comics from a foreign language into the language of the distributors. The term is most often used for Japanese (manga), and occasionally for Korean (manhwa) and Chinese (manhua) comics.

Five minutes of fame

Participants were given the opportunity to talk about a successful youth related activity / promotion / collection / space / training etc.

  • Ryde: Youth week tie in event, Battle of the Bands, went very well – they were inundated with young people. The library was also open to the general public during the event. – Contact Gabbi Wyllie
  • City of Sydney: Emerging from the Green – acoustic music in the Library featuring
    local, emerging musicians. Held 1 x month at Surry Hills branch from 2-4pm (same time as the Surry Hills markets) are very successful. Two performers (45 mins each) are each paid $99 for the gig. Potential performers have to ‘audition’ via MySpace / demo discs. – Contact Nicole Powell
  • Mosman: Manga Appreciation Society – 5-9pm, includes food and often screens anime (via Madman) Contact Alycia Bailey
  • Wyong / Blacktown: Henna Tattooing workshops, very popular with boys and girls; Contact Joanne Potter and Lee Castledine
  • Randwick: Chocolate dipping event just before the HSC was huge! 55 participants. Contact Samantha Sheppeard-Boros
  • LakeMacquarie: Youth art show using the library as a venue draws lots of young people and their parents / friends over the month it is on. Has evolved to include more art forms. Contact Cathy Shay
  • Great Lakes: Waste to art competition – library as venue for exhibition. Contact Kim Tattam
  • Fairfield: Finding MY Place program for at risk youth based on successful model in Western Australia. School selects 12 students who come to the library over 6 weeks and see guest speakers (role models / motivational speakers) … this time just boys in the group, next time will be just girls. Contact Manjit Uppal

Burning issues

A general discussion about the purpose and value of offering programs in the library was held, including outreach through community festivals and benefits programming offers.

  • The library is not just about books for young people – its’ about social inclusion, community space, providing agency (the ability to affect the world around you), empowerment, a sense of identity.
  • Successful programs: are they? a presentation Mylee gave at the Evaluation seminar last year (focuses on evaluating programs for young people) will be circulated to the elist.

Next Meeting

Monday 28 March 10.00 – 1.00 @ Blacktown Library [Theme: Early childhood]

Attachment one: Brainstorming what do we want / need from this working group? [NOTE THIS MEETING HAS A YA FOCUS]

PROGRAMMING

  • What works. What doesn’t?
  • Ideas for programs
  • Excellent programming ideas!
  • Running programs and marketing them to teens
  • Fresh ideas for programs
  • Ideas for programs for youths
  • Programming ideas
  • Running a manga reading group for young people
  • Targeting services to youth - knowing what they want from the library
  • Programming with no money or resources
  • Overcoming program failures
  • Outsourcing programs
  • Youth activities
  • Children’s programs
  • Promoting activities
  • Ideas for programs that youth will attend
  • I need programs that work and what they want to do
  • Ideas for events
  • School holiday activities
  • Program ideas for youth
  • Maximum attendance of youth on a clayton’s budget
  • Networking for ideas PLN is good but small maybe a regular collection gathered by Mylee with short blurb and contact details if we want to try the program
  • How to plan your year – examples – templates of planing a year of activities etc
  • Biggest impact on sustainable programs

STAFF TRAINING / COACHING

  • Keeping staff enthusiastic
  • Coaching mentoring staff
  • Feedback for our staff from other libraries – so they know their experiences are not unique
  • Staff other than me
  • Negative? Staff attitudes towards youth
  • Staff levels to run programs

PROMOTION / LIAISON

  • Getting YA into libraries
  • Working with council – child, youth
  • How to attract more youth to our library
  • How to get them in the library or more importantly keep them coming back
  • How do I engage and get youth interested
  • Ideas for promotions
  • Coordination of youth services across council
  • Promotion support/priority
  • Library separate to youth services – need united approach
  • Engaging young people in book clubs/activities
  • How do I best link in with high schools
  • Getting youth in the library
  • Working with youth workers (council)
  • How do I form a successful teen advisory group
  • Ideas to get YA into our library and engaged in the library
  • Making libraries Australia-wide a hub for youth
  • Strategies to increase youth/teen use of library

COLLECTIONS